Several major US retailers led by founding members Applebee's, Best Buy, Home Depot, Marriott International and Subway have announced they are joining together "to create an industry group whose goal is to ensure shoppers have only positive experiences with the gift cards they buy and use. The Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) formed in October with a mission to create consumer-centered policies and procedures for members that will let consumers continue to confidently buy and use the cards that have become the #1 gift choice over last several years." READ MORE

The Payment Card Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published a new report titled "New Prospects for Payment Card Application in Health Care" .

From the abstract: "While consumers' use of payment cards has grown rapidly in many other areas, use of these cards in making health-care payments has been far more limited. In this paper, Payment Cards Center Industry Specialist Ann Kjos attempts to explain several reasons for the slow adoption rates and identifies four related trends and developments that can be expected to lead to more rapid growth in the future. While these factors are expected to contribute to the acceleration of growth for payment card applications in health care, we know less about potential barriers stemming from consumer behavior, raising a cautionary note pending further research."

Peter Welch has authored a new report titled "Payment Card Fraud - France, Spain and UK" published by ECR Publishing Partnership. The report draws on statistics published by France’s Observatoire de la sécurité des cartes de paiement, ServiRed, the largest Spanish card payment network, and APACS, the UK payments association. You can request a copy of the report from Welch's web site.

Today is Cyber Monday - the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States. According to Wikipedia, Cyber Monday first was noticed in 2005. Some of us may recall the days of dial-up modems when shopping at home was painful - and shopping at work on the Monday after Thanksgiving was the answer!

GiftCertificates.com has announced the launch of the GiftCards application - calling it "the first iPhone application that empowers customers to select, personalize, and purchase gift cards for friends, families and co-workers directly from their iPhone or iPod Touch without the need to go to an outside website. The GiftCards application, developed for GiftCertificates.com by Trillusion Media, Inc., is available for download today at http://www.GiftCardsApp.com or the App Store in iTunes." READ MORE

Alltel Wireless has announced that it will be using mFoundry’s mobile wallet platform to create the Alltel Wallet. "The Alltel Wallet will initially provide access to a consolidated mobile banking experience, providing its customers access to a large variety of U.S. financial institutions. mFoundry’s technology, which combines comprehensive mobile banking, mobile payments and mobile commerce capabilities, will provide Alltel the necessary platform to plug in enhanced financial solutions and other advanced functionality from select third party developers." READ MORE

• ID Analytics Joins Center for Identity Management and Information Protection of Utica College
• Bits Blog - NYTimes.com: PayPal Brings Allowances Into the 21st Century
• The PayPal Blog: Saving Money with PayPal this Holiday Season
• FT.com Opinion (Meredith Whitney): America must keep consumer liquidity flowing
• M&T Bank and Visa Inc. Renew Partnership with New Multi-Year Brand Agreement
• The Wallet (WSJ): How to Avoid Overdraft Fees
• Finextra: Neovia Financial to buy IDT European pre-paid payment services unit
• CO-OP Financial Services: Prepaid Cards are a safer, more flexible alternative to “giving green” this holiday season
• New No Hassle Rewards Card from Capital One Offers Travelers Double Rewards and Greater Flexibility
• Viewpointe Completes Acquisition of PaymentsNation
• New Quicken Picks Pays You to Shop
• Reuters: Credit-card industry may cut $2 trln lines
• Coinstar and Overstock.com Team up to Offer Free Coin Counting in Time for the Holidays
• CUP Data Signs Credit Processing Agreement with China Postal Savings Bank
• comScore: Black Friday Sees $534 Million in E-Commerce Spending, Up 1 Percent Versus Year Ago
• Denver Daily News: Careful when buying those gift cards
• A New Report From Aite Group: The Mobile Banking Opportunity for Small Businesses - Are Banks Listening?
• Morningstar Stock Strategist Industry Reports: Processors Feel Customers' Pain Only Indirectly